2 posts tagged “ipod”
I finally got around to playing Tetris on my iPod and I was pretty disappointed - the overly sensitive wheel just doesn't work. I've been gaming for many years now and this has all the hallmarks of a 'stretch', the iPod's click wheel is bound to be good for some games and bad for others and this should have never happened. The QA guys should be throwing out anything that doesn't work well, but Tetris is one of the most popular handheld games ever (if not THE most popular) so of course it made it through
I lost count of how many times I put a block in the wrong place, even though I know where I wanted to put it - the slightest brush of the wheel moved it along by 1 column and the rest is history (a tedious history, given that there's no 'restart' option). At the time of playing, I was sitting still but this "click-wheel-tenderness" must be SO much worse if you're on a train or bus - exactly the place you'll probably want to play it. Now I know that people will say "you just have to get used to it" (or "lol, u is teh noob" depending how ill-educated they are) but you know - I really don't, I have played Tetris on more platforms than I can count so why bother playing an ill-suited version, I'll just stick to my mobile or DS.
Additionally - iTunes seems to have listed Pixar Short Films
on iTunes, I'm not sure when this happened but it doesn't say NEW next
to it so maybe I'm missing out? Anyway, having downloaded one (For The
Birds) so when I've watched it I'll post my opinions.
Downloaded iTunes 7 last night and I like the new style interface, just seems a little slicker and less clunky - hopefully it'll stop taking 100% of my processor usage at random intervals but I guess that'd be a big ask.
The biggest and best addition in my eyes is the games, whilst it's not the most awe-inspiring selection in the world I'm kind-of expecting it to grow in time as the current games get more popular. For now I bought Tetris and Mahjong - both classics to avoid disappointment.
I've not played Tetris yet but the Mahjong is excellent - exactly how the game ought to be and it's a great way to forget about the fact you can't get a seat on train from London to Peterborough. Thankfully it's not a long journey and the grubby/bristly floor was bearable whilst I had the distraction.
As basic puzzle games go, this seemed to be a good example - graphics and sound are both good and the wheel controller seemed to work well (though I'm not sure how well it'd stretch to more complex games). As a gamer I definitely see this as a positive development, a new channel is always good and sometimes brings a bit of innovation along with it - I hope to see some innovative uses of the wheel in future games.
